- An ex-NATO commander warned that Russian forces may try to capture the Ukrainian president.
- Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Admiral James Stavridis made the comment on the "Today" show.
- "I think he's gonna go full-bore, get to Kyiv, try and capture Zelensky," Stavridis said of Putin.
A former NATO commander and retired US Navy admiral said that he believes Russian forces will try to capture Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amid Russia's full-scale attack on Ukraine.
"I think he's gonna go full-bore, get to Kyiv, try and capture Zelensky," former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Admiral James Stavridis told NBC's "Today" show of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin early Thursday ordered a broad military invasion of Ukraine with missile strikes on several Ukrainian cities. Blasts have since been heard in multiple locations, including Ukraine's capital Kyiv and the eastern city of Kharkiv.
Stavridis told NBC's "Today" that the United States must assist in helping Zelensky to"figure out a way for him to have a government in exile, arm a Ukrainian resistance."
"We've got a lot of work ahead of us," he said.
Stavridis told "Today" that Russia's attack on Ukraine will be an "extensive" one, with a military strategy he referred to as being out of "Military War College 101."
"Start with assaults that take out the air defense, take out the command and control, back it up with a cyber-attack, move your shock troops forward, your tank columns, all that's in place, it's been building for months," Stavridis said. "There's really no mystery here."
Meanwhile, Zelensky on Thursday said he would provide weapons to any citizen who wants to defend the country against Russian attacks.
Russia's conflict with Ukraine has been rumbling for years, but escalated dramatically in recent weeks.
Russia assembled vast numbers of troops around Ukraine — as many as 190,000, per US estimates — in the largest military operation in the region since World War II.
Putin on Monday recognized the independence of two Moscow-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine — Luhansk and Donetsk — and ordered troops there for what he described as a limited peace-keeping operation in the east of the country.
Less than 72 hours later, Putin authorized a full-scale attack on Ukraine. In the hours that followed, explosions pounded cities around Ukraine, many hundreds of miles from the previous conflict zone. Ukrainian officials reported fighting on its borders with Russia, and dozens of casualties.
The new wave of hostilities expanded the clash from a limited incursion over disputed land into the most serious armed conflict in Europe for at least a decade. Insider's live blog of the invasion is covering developments as they happen.